Have read through nine issues of 1977 without any luck. Will keep digging.

BTW, the Gasparro designs appear on P. 7 of the Mint Report for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1976, (published around May of 1977), but does not mention the origin of the design. Does anybody have the next year's Mint Report you could check?

TD

Edited to add: just noticed that the reverse design in the Mint Report is significantly different in layout than the design in the OP. WIll try to image and upload it tonight.

TD

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A gentleman is someone who can play the accordian, but refrains from doing so.

FYI, the coin is pictured on the cover of the October 1976 copy of Coinage... for everyone that has a copy still lying around

It looks like a plaster model actually and not a coin that is on the cover. The article inside is pretty neat though as it talks about them experimenting with Ike dollars with 10-sides and the striking of other designs and blanks on 8-sided, 10-sided, 11-sided and 13-sided planchets. It also talks about testing six different metallic compositions.

The article says that Gasparro thought of the design used on this new dollar as the highlight of his career. Too bad it never made it to circulation.

The article also says he began work on the design in 1967 for the half dollar. Thinking that it could be used for a commemorative coin. That seems to go against those saying that he created the design for the ANA medal.

<< FYI, the coin is pictured on the cover of the October 1976 copy of Coinage... for everyone that has a copy still lying around

It looks like a plaster model actually and not a coin that is on the cover. The article inside is pretty neat though as it talks about them experimenting with Ike dollars with 10-sides and the striking of other designs and blanks on 8-sided, 10-sided, 11-sided and 13-sided planchets. It also talks about testing six different metallic compositions.

The article says that Gasparro thought of the design used on this new dollar as the highlight of his career. Too bad it never made it to circulation.

The article also says he began work on the design in 1967 for the half dollar. Thinking that it could be used for a commemorative coin. That seems to go against those saying that he created the design for the ANA medal. >>

That sounds like a very interesting and worthwhile article illini420. If Gasparro thought this was the highlight of his career, the design must have been very important for him. If he intended to use design for a half dollar or commemorative coin back in 1967, it seems unlikely he would sign over the rights to another party unless it was the US government for coinage purposes. It also seems plausible that he could have created the design as an employee of the US Mint.

Does anyone know if this article has been scanned and made available online?

What was the question again?If the ANA holds copyright on the image engraved for the 1969 medal, that is one thing. (But then again, they may not.)Clearly the prototype design for the small dollar coin, even though a similar looking design, is not high relief, as in the ANA issue, so ANA would not hold a copyright on that. Given that, I would think that Daniel Carr could logically make a fantasy issue of the flowing hair prototype without fearing litigation, in keeping with the recent fantasy designs he has been issuing.

<< That sounds like a very interesting and worthwhile article illini420. If Gasparro thought this was the highlight of his career, the design must have been very important for him. If he intended to use design for a half dollar or commemorative coin back in 1967, it seems unlikely he would sign over the rights to another party unless it was the US government for coinage purposes. It also seems plausible that he could have created the design as an employee of the US Mint.

Does anyone know if this article has been scanned and made available online? >>

If it hasn't and anyone wants to read it, I might be able to scan my copy.

Working my way backwards. Found a nice article by David Ganz in the December, 1976 The Numismatist reviewing the Research Triangle Institute's report on U.S. Coinage System Requirements To 1990.

Among other things it recommends getting rid of the half dollar and introducing a small dollar. Has pictures of a smaller Ike dollar (dated 1977) with the eleven-sided inner border to the rims as on the SBA, but the two pictures of strikes from the dies (on cupro-nickel clad nickel and brass-clad copper planchets) appear to be round. There are also pictures of various Martha Washington/Mount Vernon strikes (some round, one eleven-sided), one of the round ones circulated as a test piece.

There are also pictures of Gasparro with the Liberty Head models shown in the Mint Report I mentioned above. From a few spots you can tell they are the same things.

Will continue to dig backwards.

TD

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A gentleman is someone who can play the accordian, but refrains from doing so.

<< Recently there was a thread that touched on Gasparro's 1977 Liberty design. In that thread, there was a discussion on whether or not Frank Gasparro's design for the coin was copyrighted. Tom DeLorey mentioned that, when he worked at the ANA, he heard the ANA owned a copyright on Gasparro's Lady Liberty device, which was also used on Gasparro's 1969 ANA medal. Tom also mentioned that Gasparro received permission from the ANA to use the device on the 1977 small dollar design. Since many stories are told as fact without evidence, I was interested to learn if there was any supporting material for this particular story. I wanted to know more and Tom suggested I look into this myself if I was interested. After some initial research, I have not found evidence of copyright ownership by the ANA. I also have not found evidence the ANA gave permission to Gasparro to use the design. Here's some information so far:

(1) Tom's original source for the story was an ANA employee so I contacted the ANA. I received an email stating an initial search did not turn up any copyright records for the Lady Liberty device. It mentioned that the ANA likely had permission from Gasparro to use his work for the 1969 medal.

(2) Since copyrights are registered with the US Copyright Office, there should be a record on file with a registration number if the story Tom heard is true. I did an initial search at the US Copyright website which did not turn up any results.

Does anyone have any information on whether there is a copyright on this design or not?

Thanks

>>

What is the source of this image?TD

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A gentleman is someone who can play the accordian, but refrains from doing so.

<< Working my way backwards. Found a nice article by David Ganz in the December, 1976 The Numismatist reviewing the Research Triangle Institute's report on U.S. Coinage System Requirements To 1990.TD >>

The article I have from the October 1976 issue of Coinage was also by David Ganz, photos by Larry Stevens, including several photos of the obverse and reverse plaster models. The reverse eagle is slightly different than the images posted here and looks more like the eagle from the Flying Eagle Cent.

If anyone wants a scanned copy of the article, send me a PM with your email address.